Eliana Murdock, 4-years-old watches over Scrappy as her grandfather Rocky Murdock conducts Post Office business with Carla Williams, a Postmaster Relief employee, on Thursday August 30, 2012, in Canyon, Calif. The town of Canyon is fighting to save it's Post Office from closure, which doubles as a community center. It's the latest Bay Area city to take on the United States Postal Service.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

Eliana Murdock, 4-years-old watches over Scrappy as her grandfather...

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Signs outside the Canyon post office warn that it is in danger of closing, and the job of its postmaster, Elena Tyrell, has been eliminated. Tyrell is the go-to person for anything about the Contra Costa County town.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

Signs outside the Canyon post office warn that it is in danger of...

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Canyon resident Rena Meyers-Dahlkamp holds the post office door for her children to check their mail. The town recently celebrated the 90th anniversary of the opening of the post office.

20-year-resident Jonathan Goodwin takes care business at the town Post Office, on Thursday August 30, 2012, in Canyon, Calif. The town of Canyon is fighting to save it's Post Office from closure, which doubles as a community center. It's the latest Bay Area city to take on the United States Postal Service.

Elena Tyrrell is so essential to the quirky Contra Costa town - population 200, if you don't count the dogs - that police and fire crews rely on her for directions. She knows when all the babies are born, who has firewood for sale, how high the trout are jumping.

She's not the mayor. She's not the town gossip. She's the postmaster.

And soon, she'll be out of work.

The U.S. Postal Service, as part of its sweeping budget overhaul, has given Tyrrell and the town of Canyon notice that the postmaster job will be eliminated and the post office will be open fewer hours.

"I was devastated," said Tyrrell, 53, a third-generation Canyon resident whose mother also served as the town's postmaster. "I thought I'd be here until I retired."

Residents are none too thrilled, either.

"This sent waves of disturbance throughout the community," said Jonathan Goodwin, a clock repairer and 20-year Canyon resident who has been leading efforts to save Tyrrell's job. "This isn't a personal concern, it's about the institution. The post office is the central hub of this community."

The Postal Service is closing, selling and curtailing hours at post offices throughout the country, including several in the Bay Area, as mail volume declines and retiree costs soar.

Mail volume has dropped about 25 percent since 2006, due largely to the Internet and economic downturn, while Congress has mandated that the Postal Service pay an additional $5.5 billion annually to pre-fund its retiree health costs, said Augustine Ruiz, a Postal Service spokesman.

"It's an onerous thing, but we're doing our best to minimize the public impact," he said.

Instead of a postmaster, Canyon would have a clerk sorting the mail, selling stamps, taking passport photos and performing other postal duties.

But the clerk would be part-time, paid less, probably temporary and most likely not a Canyon stalwart who welcomes dogs and baby pictures, kids' artwork, requests for directions and plenty of chit-chat.

In short, Canyon would lose its unofficial captain.

"I'm not thinking about this for me, I'm thinking of the effect it'll have on my grandkids," said Canyon Steinzig, a nursing professor who was not only born and raised in Canyon, but was named after it. "This is about the public good. It's not about government, it's about us."

Post office opened in 1852

Canyon might be small, but it's among the oldest and most unusual towns in the Bay Area. Its first post office opened in 1852, when the town was booming with saloons, hotels and loggers clearing the redwoods to build San Francisco.

Back then the town was called Elkhorn, and then Sequoia Canyon. In 1922 the post office officially changed its name to Canyon, and 90 years of quirkiness commenced.

Canyon is tucked along a steep, shaded ravine between Oakland and Moraga, close to 21st century urban life but in many ways a throwback to simpler times, sort of a cross between Mayberry R.F.D., "The Hobbit" and Bolinas, circa 1970.

3-room school

The town has one road and two public buildings, the post office and a three-room school. The homes are hidden along footpaths in the redwoods, mostly out of public sight.

No one has a mailbox or a street address, so everyone has to stop by the post office to pick up their mail. The lack of addresses is a boon for those who relish their privacy, which is pretty much everyone in Canyon, but a bit tricky for police and fire crews, as well as visitors.

Invariably, safety crews must stop and ask directions from Tyrrell, who's often the only person around. Sometimes she'll personally escort crews to the right house.

"We always make the first stop at the post office," said Moraga Police Chief Bob Priebe, who wrote a letter in support of Tyrrell on behalf of the Orinda, Moraga and Lafayette police departments. "If someone out there needs help and she's not there, we're really in the dark."

Town owns post office

The post office is not just the soul of the community, it's actually owned by the community. The building - a simple wooden structure bounded by redwoods, ferns and Upper San Leandro Creek, is held by a community trust, which collects $2,500 a month rent from the Postal Service.

Town residents have launched a fierce campaign to save their postmaster. They're writing letters, advertising the post office's wonders - such as plenty of parking and no lines - to residents in Moraga and Oakland, and enlisting help from Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein.

"When I first heard about this, I started going around kicking people, saying we gotta do something," Goodwin said. "This is our heritage."